1. Related Applications
This invention relates to our copending application Ser. No. 305,320 filed Sept. 24, 1981, U.S. Pat. No. 4,410,815, and entitled "Gallium Arsenide To Emitter Coupled Logic Level Converter".
2. Field of the Invention
This invention is related to the conversion of gallium arsenide (GaAs) Schottky diode field effect logic (SDFL) voltage levels to voltage levels which are compatible with commercially available state of the art silicon base bipolar emitter coupled logic (ECL) circuits.
3. Description of the Prior Art
When electronic equipment such as computers and associated equipment are manufactured, it is often desirable to employ different types or families of integrated circuits. It is known that the logic voltage levels or swings required at the input and produced at the output of different types or families of integrated circuits are not always compatible. Accordingly, some type of voltage conversion and/or power conversion device is required for proper operation.
In our copending application Ser. No. 305,320 it was explained that it is desirable to provide the voltage converter or translator on the same integrated circuit GaAs chip with the associated GaAs logic circuitry. Further, in this copending application, logic circuits of a high speed computer may combine GaAs logic integrated circuits with ECL logic integrated circuits. Since the GaAs logic elements operate at approximately one order of magnitude faster than typical ECL logic circuits, the converter or translator is best incorporated into the GaAs integrated circuit.
When the translator or converter is implemented on the GaAs integrated circuit, part of the circuit area of the chip as well as part of the power consumed by the chip is devoted to the logic converter, accordingly, it is desirable that the output converter portion of the GaAs integrated circuit be as small and as efficient as possible.